MnGCA

[s4xton]

Zach Fink, who is the Clinic Coordinator for Midwest Mountaineering has asked the MnGCA this afternoon if we would be interested in hosting a basic Geocaching Clinic on Thursday from 6:30p-8:30p. Midwest Mountaineering has been very kind to us in the past (they allow us to host a physical mailbox there along with hosting meetings), so I had no hesitation to volunteer even at such short notice. We would like to invite and encourage MnGCA members to help out if interested. I'd like to get two or three people to come down if possible.

They are calling it "Geocaching 101" and it is part of a large series of clinics they are hosting in September.

A rough outline, subject to change:

5:00pm - Set up a few temps in the area around Midwest Mountaineering in Minneapolis.

6:30pm - Clinic starts with a short brief on the origins of geocaching, the Minnesota Geocaching Association and how it's grown. Also a discussion on where geocaches are in Minnesota, along with some of the laws and policies that exist.

6:45pm - Talk about Groundspeak, geocaching.com and getting cache information and discussion on difficulty/terrain and other cache specifics such as cache types.

7:00pm - GPS Usage basics and an overview of GPS technology if the audience isn't familiar.

7:15pm - Instruction on plugging in geocache coordinates into GPS units and coordinates for the temp caches given.

7:30pm - Q&A

7:40pm - Everyone goes out and finds caches and has a great time.

8:30pm - GPS units collected / end of clinic.

8:40pm - Volunteers collect temp caches.

I'd like a few other geocachers' insight and experience in this presentation and I'd like to have other people speak on sections. I'd also like some geocachers along assisting participants with finding caches. Also, I am hoping to get many GPS units for people to use in case Midwest Mountaineering isn't able to provide many demo units for this clinic.

There will not be any formal compensation for your time as it is 100% volunteer. The event is also free for participants.

Let me know if you're interested in helping out!

Thanks,
-Aaron

[Pear Head]

I have a basic PowerPoint presentation that we used in Duluth last spring. Some of it covers some basic GPS fundamentals (how they work), as well as some caching. You're welcome to it for reference, to use, or the bit bucket. Email me if you want it (about 4mb).

[s4xton]

The event went well. I was the only presenter, and there was only one person who came to the clinic. I used the outline of Pear Head's presentation as a guide (thanks!) and the person that came found the two temp caches I hid after the overview.

It's always interesting answering questions about the particulars of geocaching that we're all used to such as "why doesn't the compass point the right way when you're not moving?" and "what's a multi cache and how do you do it?"

Either way, she seemed interested in doing more.

Thanks again to Pear Head for the information he provided.

-Aaron

[RubberToes]

Aaron,

It was good to meet you Saturday in Rochester. I'm glad you had at least one attendee at the event. I recall doing some informational events about taking long hikes on the Appalachian Trail back when in lived in North Carolina. Twice I turned out to be the only one there. That was disappointing.

[Pear Head]